High School uh under the direction of Mr. Benjamin Norman, the choir teacher, the s and bear with me because um there there's a lot of um big words, non non-American words in
here, so I apologize ahead of time. The singers performing tonight are representatives of Fleming Island Voices, the coral program of Fleming Island High School. FI Voices features three cho choirs and a small vocal
ensemble. Members of FI Voices have uh participated in opportunities like the Florida Allstate Chorus, Disney's Candle Light, and Concert On the Green. They also give several community concerts throughout the year and participate in annual uh coral assessments.
The stated purpose of FI Voices is to build and support the artistic development of high school high school musicians and to foster community through singing. Tonight, Taylor uh Endi, sorry if I I messed that up,
will be performing Omo uh Bino Caro by Pooinia Puchini and the Small Ensemble will be performing River Song by Andy Beck. They will be uh
accompanied by Ben Beck. [Music] [Music] Glor. [Music]
[Music] [Music] Glory. [Music] Glor.
[Music] [Music] [Applause] for
the journey. River. [Music] Show me a shore. River to the top. You will be myui.
[Music] Show me. Even through the shadows [Music] [Music] to the sea [Music]
to a River [Music] [Music] down. [Music] [Applause]
It's wonderful talent. Uh, our student art showcase is Fleman Island High School Michael Green and Julie Brennan art teachers. The 2D and 3D art programs at Fleman Island High School uh offer students hands-on experience in both
ceramics and drawing and painting. In ceramics, students learn handbuilding, glazing, and sculptural techniques to create functional and sculptural pieces. Drawing and painting classes focus on the elements of art and principles of design while encouraging create
creativity through different media and personal expression. As students advance, they refine skills and build portfolios and can even earn college credits through the AP art classes. Both programs emphasize creativity, problem solving, and critical thinking, giving
students opportunities to showcase their work and to grow as a person and an artist. [Applause] Madam Chair, I just want to say that was the most beautiful thing I've heard all
year. I absolutely love that. It's great talent. I wish I could sing, but I'll spare all of you. uh Pastor Mason Dorsy from Trinity Community Church in Flamina Island, if you don't mind coming forward to lead us in the invocation and pledge of
allegiance. Well, let's pray together the church. Lord God, thank you so much for this awesome school year and the great start it's off to. God, we thank you so much for um for those that serve on the school board and for the ways that they support uh the administrators and the
staff and the teachers of all the schools. And God, we thank you so much for the investment of time and energy and love that um that the administrators and staff and teachers of the schools pour into the students. And God, we thank you so much for the support that the that the students families give to
the teachers as well. And God, we just ask and pray that over this next school year, um, students understand more about who they've been created to be. They understand their gifts, their talents, their abilities. They grow in knowledge and in wisdom, and they become a blessing to all those around them. Thank
you, Lord God. Amen. So, if you'd now join me in the pledge of allegiance. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and
justice for all. Thank you. At this time, I call to order the meeting for September 4th, 2025. Uh, and I would like the record to reflect that Miss Gilhousen is not present with us. Welcome citizens of Klay County. I want to take the
opportunity to thank you for taking the time out of your busy schedule to attend tonight's school board meeting. This meeting is our opportunity as your elected representatives to collaborate openly and make decisions that will decide the future direction of our public schools and the education of our children here in Klay County. If you
wish to address the board on an agenda item, there will be an opportunity to speak for three minutes. Please fill out a Please fill out a card located at the side entry door indicating the specific item number or topic you wish to speak about and turn it in promptly to one of
our officers. If you have items that you would like to present to the school board or superintendent, please hand them to an officer who will distribute them accordingly. Speakers who wish to address specific agenda items will be heard following the recognition and awards portion of the meeting. Speakers
wishing to address non-aggenda items will be heard following the adoption of the consent agenda. No additional cards will be accepted once the board moves to the public comment section under the presentation from the audience. Your participation is welcomed and appreciated.
Up first, we have Mr. Matt Boyak, director of safety and security for our Florida Safe Schools assessment tool findings. Good evening. I'm Matthew Boyak, Klay County District School Safety Specialist, 925 Center Street, Green Cove Springs, Florida. In accordance
with Florida State Statute 106.1431493, all districts must complete a school security risk assessment of each campus. Districts must ensure that said SSRAs are submitted to the Florida Department of Education, Office of Safe Schools through the Florida Safe School Assessment Tool by October 1st of every
year. On August 26th, I provided recommendations to the superintendent and the district school board in a closed session which identified strategies and activities the school board should implement in order to address the findings and improve school safety and security in Klay County District Schools. The purpose of my speaking here tonight is twofold. One,
to notify the public, superintendent, and school board that all school security risk assessments have been completed and will be submitted to the state before the October 1st deadline. The other reason I am here tonight is to report back last year's Office of Safe School visit totals and the total number of visits we had with no deficiencies. I
am proud to say that we had 24 visits from OSS auditors last year and 20 of those visits were perfect with zero deficiencies. This results in an 83.3% pass rate for the 2425 school year. I want to thank each school administrative staff for their thorough and diligent
efforts throughout the process. I also want to thank the school board and superintendent for their insight, guidance, and support along the way. I can truly say that the safety of our students is the number one priority here in Clay, and I am proud of the steps we have taken and will continue to take to
keep our schools safe. Thank you. [Applause] Thank you, Mr. Boyak. He does a great job. Um, and next up, we have Mr. Tom Pitman, principal for Fleman Island High School for our school showcase.
Also with me, uh Thomas Pitman, 2233 Village Square Parkway, Fleming Island, Florida. I am the uh I'm honored to be up here to today to uh give you uh a look at Fleming Island High School. I'm
also here with Miss Brittney Senna, one of my team leaders. Um, one of she's an assistant principal at Fleming Island High School. I'm also would like to know that we are in a good place in Klay County. This is a good school district. I am a proud uh graduate of Orange Park
High School, went to Grove Park Elementary, Orange Park Elementary, Orange Park Middle School, Orange Park High. Worked here in the district for 32 years. I've raised two kids and put them in this school system for a reason. And there's a reason I live in Klay County. It's a great great school district.
What we're about to show you is I can take some credit for it because I am the principal and as Mr. Broski always says, there's no excuses, but I cannot take all credit. It's an amazing leadership team that I have, faculty, support
staff, students, and parents. That is uh what we're about to show you on the next few slides. And how do you turn this thing on? Oh, you keep So, Fleming Island High School these
past 18 years has been an A school. Um, we've been a top 10% in the Florida public schools in the last two years since 2023. So, you have about five over 500 high schools in the state of Florida. We've ranked in the top 50. That includes all
school uh high schools in the state of Florida. We had our highest school grade two years ago. Uh over the last five years, we've increased our proficiency with our SWD students and ELA by 11%. Two years ago, we increased our school
grade at a high school level um 90 points. That's that's huge. Huge. I mean, so, uh, and, uh, we're outperform performing neighborhood district schools that have a fraction of our econom economically disadvantaged population
percentage. So, what I mean by that real quick is we went and we looked at schools around us that have some similar demographics. Um, couple schools in St. John's County, we are operating at about a 25 to 30% uh
free and reduced lunch here at Fleming Island High School. We are outperforming schools that have less than 10% in other districts around this area. So very very proud of that. Last year we uh had 212 industry
certifications. We administered our Cambridge program which is a collegebound program. uh 1,200 exams with over 89% pass rate. For every exam that's passed, these students are getting college credit. It's also generating money back into the school
district and our schools um through uh the state of Florida for our students to be successful. We also have the AP Capstone program. We had over 8,000 of those out of 79% that's run through College Board. So if these students come through with an AP Capstone diploma or a
Cambridge diploma, they are guaranteed 100% Bright Future scholarship without uh necessary SAT or ACT score. So that is huge in the parents wallet. That is huge. That's a big accomplishment. All of our high schools in the uh Klay
County do now have the Cambridge program and access to the AP Capstone program and all schools in Klay County are doing a tremendous job with that. areas of opportunity for Fleming Island High School. We're we are doing well and we're very proud of what we do, but
there is always room for improvement. If you sit on your rear end, you're going to get passed by and we don't want to do that. So, we want to continue to close the gap with our SWD population. Um, and you can read this here. Uh, continue to improve our instructional practices uh
with collaborative planning. You know, one of the biggest things that we've had with collaborative planning is our weekly PLC's. It is huge. Uh, you know, five, six years ago is when they started instituting it, we had a little bit of push back on PLC's. Um, everybody didn't
really know, but I know at our school, our teachers have thrived in it. They have, our scores have been driven, and they just continue to to go better with those weekly PLC's. It's an opportunity for our teachers to get together and do
well and and collaborate and u they I sit in there. They talk about certain student work. They talk about uh you know how can we teach something if teacher A is getting a really good point and getting a point across on a on a you know a benchmark but teacher B is not
they they collaborate and figure it out. And we also want to continue attendance monitoring, you know, um with the parents and the schools and positive reinforcements are things that we do uh as you just saw our our chorus and performing arts um just performed. They
had last year they had one all state, 15 all county, four superior solist, and three concert on the green winners. The soloist that you saw was a concert on the green winner uh last year. Um they also received superior ratings on their
coral agree uh assessment and our band um last year was class 5A marching band state champions. Um the only band in the state to have more than one concert band uh have superior ratings. So there we are well-rounded school allow students
the opportunity not just academics but to do things outside of the classroom to be uh perform and become a better citizen. So once we mold them, they can go off and be a productive citizen once they have that high school diploma here in the from Klay County schools.
But not to we don't want to leave out athletics eel either. That is also a huge part of what some students do. And so if you can see I'm not going to read all of this, but we had a lot of accomplishments this past year and uh athletics. The biggest thing that sticks
out to me there is that overall GPA. All of our athletes had a 3.457 GPA combined. Um, so you know, it takes a lot to uh, you know, perform on the field, but if you don't perform in the classroom, then you're not going to be
able to be successful. And college coaches will uh, they will they will just mark a big black line from you if you don't have that GPA. So that's something that we do and we take very uh take a lot of pride in. And
that's it for Fleming Island High School just in a blue. But if you want to talk Fleming Island High School or Klay County Schools, call me up. I will sit down and talk to you. And uh you know, we can we I have a lot of history. You know, I from Fleming Island High School,
but also Klay County Schools being in the county since 1977. So all right. Thank you so much for allowing me to present to you guys tonight and uh hopefully you guys have a great be board meeting. [Applause]
I'm gonna come visit you this month and we can talk. He said no. No. Uh last call for comment cards and at this time um none up here are for agenda
items. So we're gonna go ahead and start. Um so you guys will be after the agenda. Okay. Okay. All right. So, there is no human resource special actions A or B.
So, can I get a motion to um adopt the consent agenda? I'll move to adopt the consent agenda. I have a motion from Miss Hansen. Can I get a second? Second. I have a second from Mr. Alvo. All in favor signify by saying I. I.
Any opposed? Motion carries. 40. All right. At this time, we will be taking presentations from the audience. And first up is Mr. Freriedman. Miss. Torres, you're on deck. And please remember to state your name and your
address. Can you hit the button? Can you hear me now? Yes. Thank you. Bruce Freriedman, address on file. During the course of the last three years, I've been here almost every month to identify
the lack of oversight that led to the libraries being filled with pornographic materials. To date, been instrumental in removing 725 titles that violate law. One of the things that brought me to
this battle is not porn at all. In fact, I think it's a much bigger threat to the children than the porn itself. And that is critical race theory. The book I'm going to discuss with you tonight does not include particularly large number of bad words. It's not all
that profane. What's critical about it is that it wound up as part of a purchase bundle that you used to open Spring Park Elementary K through six school with little Edison kids that deserve better than this. This book is called You Don't Know Everything, Jill P
by Alex Gino. I have challenged the work of Alex Gino in the past. Someone should have caught on to that from your team and gone to look at everything else he wrote. But all right, this one once again fell to me. In my opinion, this book is an
intentional threat to racial harmony and societal order. I'm going to read some things from the book. You won't need to turn off the mic. parts of the book. Justin and Jamila aren't safe because they're black. Black kids get shot all
the time. Fatally shot by police. In this case, there's a reference to a event in the book where the police shoot a young deaf girl seven times in the back. Jessica was killed. The cops shot her for just running down the street. Because of police, she is gone. It could
have been me. Everyone should be safe, but they're not. Especially people who are black. Acknowledge the seven bullet wounds. Killed by a cop, killed by police. The mother speaks. They took her from me. Shot her and killed her. Jessica and
other victims of police violence. People who have been killed because they were black. Hurt by police. Shot by a cop. Black kids keep getting shot. You get the idea. I'm going to stop here. It ends with white readers learn about their privilege. Anyway, it's not a
privilege to have to read this book. It's not a benefit to children, white or black. It does nothing to promote harmony in this community. This book never should have been purchased. So, who's responsible? All of you. That's all I've got to say. Do better. Come up with a plan that
prevents this from getting in the hands of our kids. Have a good night. Miss Torres. Mr. Warren, you you will be after uh Miss Torres. Sheila Taurus addresses on file. So, one of the things I wanted to discuss with
you guys or bring to your attention, if you guys don't know, I'm one of the many parents that have multiple kids in this district. And what seems to be going on is that you guys implemented the application rooms which honestly to some parents is given issue including myself.
When I get PF files from the teachers, I have to basically adjust or go into a computer in order to see what she sent. And if I can get that paper better for me. The whole reason why you guys asked us to download room is because it was
easy communicable, easy access to the teachers, the admin, the staff and so forth, right? But it's kind of funny that I have three kids and I three of my kids, two of them are high school and I only got certain teachers on it. I don't have the teacher that they are scheduled
with at least on this quarter or the following quarter neither for none of my high school kids. Only two of them. To me, that's a problem because if you rushing us, oh, download download this and a third because it be a application that is accessible to the staff and
they'll put out information whatnot. I'm not getting that information and I'm know I'm not the only parent because I'm tired of hearing parents talking about this room is supposed to help us is not doing it. It's making our job more difficult. We can't see PDF file. We can't do this. We can't do that. I can't
access the teachers that my kids are in the class. That's a problem because we paying the district is paying for an app that doesn't work. Now, I also downloaded the Chipmunk app that does not work that does not show me the bus moving in real time or whatever the case
might be. Another thing, too, is that we actually no longer are doing cash in none of these schools or the events. We have to pay by card. So, when we paying by card, the school books itself take 5% out of everything that is processed in itself. So, if you pay a dollar, what is
it? Five cent. To you guys, it might might not seem nothing, but if you look at all the school within the district going through school bucks and paying that, it adds up. Those 5% difference that coming out of every payment through
school bucks can actually go be beneficial for our kids. We don't see that money. We losing money. Then when we go to sporting events, we got to pay for with cards and everything and then we are asked to pay a convenience fee. That is an issue. I rather have an
option. Not, oh, you have to pay by card. You have to do every transaction by card. No, I want an option. I want option to be paying by card and making sure that any fundraiser, anything that is being done for the school goes for the school
itself, not for the vendor, not for the district itself to line their pocket, none of that. I want the stuff to actually work. I don't want to pay for apps. I don't want the district to pay for ads for stuff that does not work because that's unnecessary spending and that unnecessary spending can go for
something that is beneficial for the kids. Equipment, the jersey, the um coaches, anything in itself. Thank you, Miss Torres. Up next, Mr. Warren. Good evening. Adam Warren addressed on
file. Um, first and foremost, I just want to make sure praise um, Argyle Elementary. Uh, Miss Dorsch is doing an amazing job. I think they were represented last month. I hate I missed that. Um, also Miss August at the junior high that just an amazing turnaround. There's a lot of great things going on
there. The Orange Park Junior High. And then obviously Mr. Gund at Orange Park High. Amazing. So those three schools, I'm affiliated with them because I have kids there. all top-notch leadership going on and and you know so there's definitely some praise there. Um the
lady that just spoke um she kind of stole some of my thunder. Um I was going to speak on the GoFan app again. I mean there's she mentioned 5%. You know the GoFan is a$125 you guys are losing. I spoke on it last year. Um I was obviously given an option to go to the
school and pay cash on a time that they had um allotted which that wasn't the point. It was the point that you guys are paying somebody else a$125 for not just a whole transaction. It's every ticket that y'all are letting somebody
else make a$125 on. And that is a ton of money that you guys are just leaving on the table. I had the math last year. Um you guys need to run the numbers. You know, you were talking about budget cuts and it's a lot of money. Um the other deal we know we switched
from here comes the bus. It was actually starting to work a little bit towards the end of school year. I think we finished the school year pretty strong. Um, you know, at least the way I felt. Swipped the switch this chipmunk and it has been an absolute disaster. You know, kids, we're not getting roocalls. We
have no clue. We're not getting the notifications. We calling in. We were told that you guys made the decision not to have roocalls any longer. Y'all chose an option not to have that. Two weeks in, they started doing those again, but then they couldn't tell us the actual bus number. So now we have junior high
kids standing out at the bus stop. Last week there was once in one instance where they stood there for 45 minutes and unless I had been sitting there to tell my daughter that what bus number the kids had no clue because the app didn't tell them the bus. So 45 minutes late the bus was and they're supposed to
just trust what bus pulls up says hey you get on this bus. That's dangerous. That is a huge huge huge lawsuit that's potential that I feel like just the danger of having these kids stand out there no clue what
bus is coming and they're told just to get on the bus because this is your bus. The app does not tell us like I said the bus number 45 minutes late um doesn't track well and it just looks it looks very childish this chipmunk app when you compare it to here comes the bus because
here comes the bus is still working. It looks very childish. And I also asked, why do we have somebody over transportation that potentially is not driving buses? I called three different times two weeks ago, different times, and I was told that they were short bus drivers, but
the leader was not on a bus. If he's not capable of driving the bus, he shouldn't be over the department. Kelly uh St. Stalner. Am I butchering that? Okay. Kelly Stenau, 1500 Calming Water Drive,
Unit 50001, Fleming Island. Good evening. I am speaking to you on behalf of teachers of Klay County, my family, and my debt collectors. I wrote to you last year as my youngest son was diagnosed with a rare kidney disease called C3 glumer nephritis with 12 years
experiencing in teaching and a master's. I currently bring home $1,850 every two weeks or $44,400 a year after health insurance for myself and my children are taken out. We have the lowest cost plan, so the
out-ofpocket expenses cause many sleepless nights. Some offer the advice of upgrading our medical plan, which sounds great until one does the math. According to Zillow, the average rent in Klay County is $2,000 a month. Housing
expenses are almost half of our yearly pay um for the disposable income, bringing it down to about $20,000 a year. The average vehicle payment for a used car in Florida is $6,000 a year, an additional $2,000 a year to insure that
vehicle, leaving teachers with a disposable income of $12,000. The average family in Florida spends $1,000 a month or $12,000 a year on groceries. We're now at zero balance for the year without including gas for the car, utilities, out-of pocket medical
expenses, presents for birthdays, or Christmas. Florida is not only the lowest paid state for teachers, but our pay has actually decreased 12.9% since the 2014 2015 school year when factoring in inflation. I ask the school board
members to keep in their hearts and mind how much the teachers of Klay County are struggling as teacher salaries are negotiated. Thank you, [Applause] Mr. Major Matt Weber.
Ladies and gentlemen, uh, good evening. My name is Major Matt Weber and I'm the commanding officer of the Marine Corps recruiting station headquartered in Jacksonville. We got an office here in Klay County. Sergeant Clark is my direct representative in the area over at 2143 L Boulevard. Um, first and foremost, I'd
like to thank you all for your time this evening. Uh my objective today is simply uh to thank you and highlight some of the great accomplishments some of the students that you all have here um in Klay County. In the past year, 29 young men and women have made the admirable decision uh to join the United States
Marine Corps and earn the title of United States Marine. As of this morning, we have 30 more young men and women getting ready to step off to recruit training, including two that'll be going out up to Paris Island in South Carolina next week to earn the title Marine. Uh we also offer multiple paths to becoming a Marine Corps officer
including through our Naval Reserve Officer Training Corps uh scholarship program. So in the past three years in the about 40,000 square mile area that we cover all the way down from Daytona Beach up to Alb, Georgia, uh we have awarded $4.7 million in scholarships
including 180,000 that has come gone to a Klay County student. Um, as a recipient of that scholarship in 2011 through the University of Pennsylvania, I cannot speak highly enough of that program and have a deep interest in expanding that opportunity to more students of Klay County. Uh, and just
finally to close, uh, you know, I meet a lot of young folks in my in my line of work here as the commanding officer of Marine Corps recruiting. Um, and and every single day, every single interaction I have, I am deeply deeply impressed with the maturity, the professionalism, and just the way that these young men and women uphold
themselves. and I know that that is absolutely the result of your dedication to their education uh and the the teachers and staff that you all have here within Lake County. So, I thank you for that and I thank you for your time. Thank you, gentlemen, and thank you for
what you do. Uh, Miss Sarah Harrison. Hi, Sarah Harrison, 2011 County Road 209B, Green Cove Springs, Florida 32043. I am here on behalf of Patterson Elementary's PFA. Um, we have a very active PFA. Uh, Superintendent Broski
has been to many of our events before. Um, we have lots of parent involvement. Um, we're running into some issues recently with the new vendor forms. Um, our PFA raises money for numerous things. We've provided tables in our
courtyard. We've provided no noise control panels in the cafeteria. You guys cut PENDA this year. We provided Penda for our fourth through sixth grade students. Again, um, all of this has been money fundraised by parents and students. Um, in order to continue to do
that, we have to be able to fund raise. We have an ice cream social coming up next Friday. We can't even go buy pizza right now. We have the money that belongs to the parents and the students, but Domino's is no longer a vendor in our system. All of the vendors that were
vendors last year have to be re-entered and have to fill out new vendor forms. The new vendor forms aren't um the they go above and beyond what Domino's would need to fill out. Um
things like getting a check in 45 days. Um there's no pay upon receipt. They're requiring COI insurance, um vehicle insurance, all sorts of things. And I know there are some waiverss for that, but it's still way more information than
Domino's wants to fill out just to be a vendor to buy a pizza. Um, we've run into the same thing with Texas Roadhouse. We do a lot of fundraisers with them. We can't do those this year because we can't get them entered into the system. So, we're just asking that
either some of those restaurant vendors that we deal with that were vendors for years prior be added back into the system so that we can continue to fund things for the school that you guys have not been able to fund this year and we're stepping up and doing that. Um, or
come up with a separate vendor form that's easier for those sorts of businesses that aren't coming onto campus. um we're not signing contracts with them. We're not doing anything. We're just going out and trying to buy pizza to resell. So, we just ask that you guys please look into that and hopefully sooner rather than later
because it's a ongoing current issue right now. Thank you. [Applause] I'm going to ask that some of you that spoke earlier to stay and listen because our superintendent is going to address some of these issues, especially vendor
and fundraising. uh we have had some policy changes that will help with fundraising, but um I believe the vendor issue has been addressed. So, he's going to give you an update on that. Um last up is Miss Kana Hawthorne.
Hi, Kana Hawthorne, 2121 Berg Avenue, Orange Park, U 32073. Um, my issue with Orange Park Junior High School, my daughter's in eighth grade, is the transportation this year. Unfortunately, she was unable to ride the bus for the eighth grade year due to
the I guess the distance, the race ratio or the time. So, if you look at my address where I live at, I live at the Alexander Point Apartments. That's a 45minute walk. She can't walk that far. That's very unsafe. We have
unidentified sex offenders and predators in the area that's unidentified. And I feel it's a is a safety hazard. We do not have no type of um crossing guard besides the high school and that's it. There's no that's three lights that she
has to walk down, go straight down to a road. There's no crossing guard on each side at all. going to the seventh eighth grade school to um Orange Park High School. I feel like that's the vote that that with decision making was very
it just unbelievable. I don't feel like that if you want to deliberate a devote like that for a seventh eighth grader age 11 to 13 years old to walk that distance. Put their put your sho put yourself in their shoes. Do
did you walk that distance before you made that vote? No, I think you haven't. You got to think about your grandkids, your great grandkids, your niece and nephew. You got people not, I say, not paying attention when they driving. Recently,
this week, I seen someone in the in their mirror shaving, put on lipstick, eyelashes. There's nobody's watching. It's very unsafe for my eight-year-old, I mean, I'm sorry, my 13-year-old walking 45 minutes to school,
dehydration. She's tired by the time she get to school. What I supposed to think? What What that mean? Did y'all think about that before y'all made that decision? No, no bus come that way. Last year, she was in seventh grade. She rode the bus. This
year is a different a different decision. I don't think that decision vote was very smart on my behalf and I'm representing the seven eighth grade parents at my my um my complex right now
is very unsafe. Like I said, you have unidentified sex offenders. You got people are snatching kids and murdering kids, raping kids, whatever the case may be every day. think about this decision and can we please get the buses running back at
Orange Park High School Junior for December 8th graders. Thank you. [Applause] All right, Miss Kid uh Miss Kidwell, it's your time to shine. So, good evening. Um, Miss Watt is going
to share with you um some information which I'm going to rever refer to later. Thank you. Um, good evening members of the school board and superintendent. I'm standing up here today with some teachers who came to the school board meeting. Um, they wanted to show you
that they really support us in bargaining. Um, I want to take these three minutes to share the concerns of our teachers. Bargaining has begun and at the first bargaining meeting, Miss Posie presented a recap of the gloomy budget outlook. We were promised a meeting to address our questions this
week, but were notified on Tuesday that financial leaders would not be meeting with us to answer questions as promised. We were told that some information we had requested should be available after September 11th. CCA has been requesting millage expenditure, fund balance
details, and other budget information for many months. We all understand that this is a difficult budget year in Klay County. However, we also know that financial disclosure is a legal requirement necessary for bargaining in good faith. Klay County spends its millage funds on safety, security, and
other operating expenses. No part of our millage funding funding is dedicated to competitive salaries. Yet teachers are seeing the surrounding counties funding school safety and competitive salaries supplements through their millage funds. And these teachers are asking us the
obvious questions. If others counties can prioritize both school safety and competitive salary supplements with their millillage, why can't Klay County? What operating expenses are being placed above retaining and valuing our educators? It is the responsibility of
CCA to ask these hard budget questions. We are committed to negotiating the best compensation possible for our dedicated educators. We believe committing a portion of the millage funding is essential to Clay to keep Clay competitive, stable, and strong.
CCA has a list of budgetary questions and we've shared them with you. I want to ask you to look at that budget uh folder if you would on page one and pay attention to the administrative growth
from 2015 to the present. Um data shows that while student population grew 7% 53% increase in administrative staff. Why? It also shows we also have the district
summary budget in there. You'll notice um administrative lines um show an increase of 700,000 um for the administrative line while instructional appropriation decreased by over 25 million as compared to 2425. So
again, we're asking why. It's up to us to ask those hard questions. Um, we want to draw your attention to page three. And I see that I'm about to be out of time, but I want to ask you to look carefully at the millillage that's being put into the fund balance. And note that
that rollover increases to over 9 million for the end of this year. Our teachers are not asking for luxuries, as you heard earlier. They're asking for fairness, respect, and recognition for what the that they are the foundation of the success of Klay
County Schools. I ask you please to look through this information with diligence. Feel free to call if you have questions. We hope to have a sit down with um finance soon to get some answers. We just need clarity and transparency. Thank you.
[Applause] Mr. Lonnie is not here, correct? Okay. Uh, Mr. Superintendent. All right. Awesome. So, let me go ahead and, uh, today we have a a brief update
here. So, then I'll answer some questions at the end that were brought forward. Uh, let's see. Maybe not. Can you guys hear him? Your microphone. Thanks for working. It's on. Hello.
Better. Okay. So, we're going to talk a little bit about the start of the uh school year as well as college and career night, special programs in September, fast testing, and schools of the month nominations. It's not It's not working, Kelly. the on button helps.
So, the start of the school year, just just a couple quick recaps here because this is the first meeting since um since school year start. Once again, the the two new buildings at uh Lake Asbury Junior High and Oakleaf Junior High, 32 classroom wings. I would just say that
I'm I I'm uh I commend the board for their fiscal conservative approach because remember we took care of growth in two areas. To build a new school would have cost uh more than to build these two options. So fiscal
conservatism definitely on display, but more important than that, fantastic for students. What a great place for students to learn. Full state-of-the-art technology within all of those buildings. Really is gorgeous. And both uh Scorpio and Parish Construction,
Parish McCall did great jobs and great works about kids smiling. That's really what it's all about. Like these singers that we that we heard um at the beginning, kids were smiling. I tell you who else was smiling. Parents were smiling as they dropped the kids off for
school. Nothing like the first day. Always brings excitement. I never sleep the day before because I'm always thinking, okay, what part of my job is to worry, right? So, I'm always worried like what's going to happen, but at the same time, it's the excitement of it
all. It never gets old either. The excitement of it, you can see the families there excited to bring their kids back to school. I often tell the story of the parents that were giving each other high fives as they dropped their kid off and were were no doubt going home to celebrate the start of the
school year. There's also traditions that happen within schools. Fall sports definitely is one of those. You can see that the startup of fall sports. You know, school is more than just English, math, science, and social studies. I know it's hard for you to hear that from superintendent, but really it's an it's
also an experience. And when I think back at at my high school days, if it wasn't for uh sports, I probably wouldn't have done as well uh as I had because I was motivated by the the coaches and other people that were
influential in my life. College and career night, we we had that uh this week was fantastic. all those representatives. You can see NEPA there who did a great job with our CTE programs, but there was colleges. There was different employers because at the
end of the day, students are either going to enlist, enroll, or or be employed, right? They only have three options when they get to the the end of their high school year. Uh I did see a lot of parents that were walking their child around like trying to shop a job, like, hey, like you're getting out of
the house uh after this year. You're a senior. It's time to make a decision. and it's time to move on and those types of things. An event like this one, uh, our CTE department did a great job with that and appreciate everybody that went out there to support fast testing. You know, Florida is the only state in the
in the nation that has a system of of testing that goes uh three times in the year with a baseline a baseline testing which happens at the beginning of the year then a midyear to measure growth and then an end of the
year uh what's called PM1, PM2 and PM3. But PM3 is the one that you see that that counts for school grades. Kind of makes sense. It's kind of like this the final exam if you will over the course of a of a school year. So all of that is
going on right now. Um I don't know if you can see that but the eighth grade math problem I looked at that and I thought I wonder if people know how stringent the example are. So when you look at it, uh why don't we just ask the
crowd? Uh you know what is the correct answer to the eighth grade math problem? It is the first one. And and I'm not sure if we were all honest and we were all looking at this, I bet you many of you would say, I don't I don't know.
Right? Because that sure certainly would have been my answer to to that. Right? So the point I'm trying to make is simply that that it's very rigorous what we expect students to be able to do. Uh it's not like a a cakewalk, if you will.
I wanted to talk a little bit about how parents can get involved with this, right? Because parents, it'd be great for you to monitor how your students are doing so you can provide them with some help along the way. You can see all of your child's stuff by doing the following. We'll make this an easy
couplestep process. Step one, if you log into parent view, right? If you log into parent view, there's a screen that looks like that. You can see where that where the circle is now there, you're looking for a code. It'll be a mixture of numbers and letters there. Okay? So,
once you grab that code, you can write it on a sticky, whatever you got to do to remember it. But then if you go to the family portal, which is you could see that on the lefth hand portion of the screen, you only need three bits of information. The code you just got your child's date of birth and your child's
first name. You put it in there and then the state of Florida actually did a wonderful job on this portal. It gives parents all kinds of information that I would encourage you to seek out about your child's performance, where they how they're doing in each uh standard, each
band, uh all over the place. It actually goes back even years. So, you can see your child's progress through years of that and see how your child is actually doing. Special programs, it's uh Hispanic Heritage Month from September
15th to October 15th. Uh, Heroes Day, September 11th. Everybody out there, red, white, and blue on that day districtwide. Uh, civics and US government students and others receive instruction on the history and significance of 911. It's
hard to believe. What is it? Uh, 24 years if my math is correct. That's it's that long ago. And it seems like to me it seems like it just happened not that long ago. But as time goes on, people forget. So, it's important that we teach
these things within our school system. Uh, and we do have a very proud and robust um civics program. How about this? Dads, take take your child to school day. September 19th is the day. Uh, now I'm just going to say I'm going to brag a
little bit on my dad who's deceased, but he drove he drove me to school every day, right? So, you take your dad dad's to to school day. It's important the role of dads in society and so this is just one day to celebrate it but I'm hoping it's more than one day in
practice uh with dads the importance of dads shouldn't be understated as a dad I'll say that celebrate freedom week coming up on the 22nd through the 26th uh you can see uh all of that it
culminates at the end there's constitution declaration of independence Freedom Friday on February 26th. We really do a good job, the social studies folks do a great job of promoting this with our students and making sure that students know the importance of the
Constitution in everyday life in the United States. Schools of the month, we're we're kicking that back up again. Thank you so much to Community First for bringing great community partners with us. Here are the months. So September is warm and welcoming described at school
fosters an inviting atmosphere and you could see what each what each month is. Um upcoming events founders month 911 US Constitution Days to School Celebrate
Freedom Week. So before I do that, let me kind of address a couple of issues. One, the vendor update. We we believe that we resolved that for the delay for Patterson. Uh in fact, you know, this this particular issue was so uh concerning and we did hear from other
folks, we actually put our our our top person in charge, our second in charge uh you know, right below me in in the hierarchy is Mr. Daly, and he's intimately involved in this. I'm going to have him reach out to you on Monday personally to see what your what your
issue is related to that. Uh when it comes to transportation, let me just say no doubt uh you start in the school year, rough things happen. Uh uh we did a whole workshop on it last workshop kind of explaining what had happened in the workshop and our transportation
department uh was there to kind of explain. But yeah, the Chipmunk app crashed uh on the very first day. It worked all summer long, was flawless all summer, and then when everybody across the state went on to the server all at the same time, it crashed and so that uh
that the company made good on getting it back up for those people having issues with that. We do have some transportation folks in the back to help out. And I know that in several cases, they've had two or three conversations related to transportation. When it comes
to the 2.0 0 miles. That is the statute regarding uh transportation to schools. So, if you feel like it's a hazard for your child to walk that distance, there's a process. It's called hazardous walking condition. You simply complete
that. We've done well over a hundred hazardous walking condition evaluations to make that determination. The statute has very strict criteria as to what constitutes a hazard for students to walk to school. We follow the statute.
If it's a if it's a if it is a hazard, then transportation's provide provided. If it's not a hazard, then uh the person's always welcome to be to put in for a courtesy rider. After at this time, if there's room on a bus, we
evaluate that and uh we would then classify as courtesy rider to allow you to ride the bus. So, that's kind of the process related to that. Um, as far as teacher salary, I would just say we'd all love to pay uh teachers and all of
our employees more money. So, we look forward to the collabor collaboration related to that. There is no doubt and you've heard me speak publicly times about the current state of the budget uh and the amount of funding that we've received from the state versus the
amount of expenditure that we have. And there's no doubt that that things are things are tight related to that. But the desire to do that is present of everyone up here on the on the dis. So I think I addressed most everything. So
thank you madam chair. All right. Do we have any um school board attorney remarks this evening? Okay. And we'll start with board members. Um, Mr. Albero, would you like to go first?
Sorry. I tried to skip out of order so it's not a surprise. I would like I would like Can you hear me guys? I would like to say that when I ran for office last year, one of
the things that I run on was our children's safety and also our teachers salary. Right. So I right here compromising myself to support if the citizens of Klay County
decided that we can get some of the percentage from the mileage to pay the teachers, I will support that decision. so we can get more money for you guys. All depend on the citizen of Klay County, but I will support it if they do.
Also about transportation, well, we we going to work with people the best we can. Um just uh bring your concerns to us and we're going to work in case by case. But um my proposition is
use also the millage money to be able to fix transportation if possible. That's what I was going to propose when the time comes because in my opinion this little details this mile and half a mile that we do and
this details we got with a population is what make Clay County great. And if I can fix it, if we can fix it as a team, we will. Thank you. Uh, Miss Clark, you'll bear with me for a couple of
items. Um, I had the pleasure of going to the Farm Bureau event, annual event, and uh, where we celebrate our FFA students, their scholarships, and get to see how charitable Klay
County citizens are. I think we raised $7,400 just from cake sales. That was unbelievable. And, uh, that went towards scholarships. And as far as the auction items, I I don't think I've got a number on it, but
uh that goes towards our pantries at our schools to help the the children that need help. Um but it's just it's always rewarding to see how generous this county is. Also, I'm going to mention something.
Last spring, we had heard that uh our legislators were trying to pass Senate Bill 2510 and House Bill 5101. And that involved cutting the funds to our CTE, ACE, IB, dual enrollment,
all those things that give us an edge over the other schools. I want to mention that Senator Bradley worked extremely hard to keep that cut from happening. It should
have never been proposed, but there were counties that or districts and other counties that misused the funds that they were given. Clay did not misuse the funds. What we were given went to those programs. So instead of throwing the baby out with
bathwater, the point was to save all of that. And if we had not had Senator Bradley fight extremely hard, there's no telling what where we would have ended up. So I just want to give
her a shout out for for helping Clay. And last, one thing that I haven't heard anybody talk about with our two new buildings is that in fact my office is in St. Augustine uh world golf village
and I watched toy high school which is relatively new couple years old. I watched as I went to office to the office this year all the portables that were brought in and it's just something that we all have had to live with. But
the fact that this board and our operations division, Bryce Ellis, know that we don't want portables, but obviously it costs a lot of money. We put up two
buildings. We didn't pull in portables. We put up buildings, and they're amazing buildings. And I hope that if anybody has a chance to see them that uh you'll take the time to do so. But that's the direction we're trying to go in. We're
gonna do what we can financially to build and stay away from the portables. That's our goal. So, I just want people to recognize that we made that achievement. Thank you,
Miss Hansen. I wanted to talk a little bit about Rooms. Um there are districts rooms is a new app um an app that we have that enables teachers to talk to parents. See they took all the volume from Mr.
Broski's mic and put it on mine because I'm way back here. But um but on a serious note, if you talk to people in other districts who have had rooms for more than one year, it's a very dynamic tool. I had a chance of
looking at one of my kindergarten friends. I had a kid in kindergarten and the teacher was able to communicate the good things going on during the day and the updates on the behaviors we might have to to work with. Parents were zipping back and forth in rooms. She did
it during planning. She did it uh lunchtime. She's very very excited about rooms. And so what I would say is to beg your patience. Um, one, as a teacher, when you walk into school and you have a
zillion things to do, rooms was not a priority for many teachers. I know this week 10 teachers who got around to doing it this week. It is a difficult thing when teachers have to implement something brand new. But this something
by next year is going to be a timesaver and a communication trophy for us. So if if you could just bear with the teachers as some come on board, some struggle coming on board and understand that it will be fine-tuned more than likely by
next year. Just give it a year. It's the same thing with the Chipmunk app. There are many districts that use it and have been using it successfully. We just came in at a time when so many people went on at one time that it crashed, which of course is our responsibility and the
district and transportation reacted the best they could to it. So all of these new things it with patience are going to be perfected by next year. So, um, the other thing I wanted to talk about
is I'd like to talk about when I ran for office. Said a lot of things, but I'd also like to talk about how naive I was when I was talking. Like my husband said, there's always a
thousand critics in the room. Always. It hurts my heart that I now know the enormous impact and the enormous responsibility this
board and our district holds not only to our teachers, to our students, to safety. I lay awake at night and I think about how wrong I was when I ran for office because we are a board of five. I'm not
a person of one talking. We're a board of five with 40,000 students, thousands of teachers, thousands of support personnel. We talk about teachers needing more money. We rarely talk about support who since I've been on this
board, we brought them up to $15 plus. It was abysmal when I came on this board. People were making 910 121 an hour as adults working with our special needs population. So, I want to just tell you
comes a little bit of shame about when I ran, how easy I thought it would be to make changes. But with that comes an immense amount of pride with how well strong teams working together can make huge changes for the
better. When you think about being the largest employer in Klay County and the fact that I could go home and I have a list at home of 32 major things that this board and district have accomplished since I was elected, I'm very proud.
Do we have work to do? Yes. Do we have work as a community? Yes. Would I love for all of our parents to be so involved that I wish I didn't have to talk to parents? Yes. Would I love for our teachers hypothetically to make a living wage when my daughter is a teacher? When
I was a teacher? Yes. But I can tell you only so much can be done. We went 15 years of just terrible pay. And in the last three years, this board has moved forward with every dime we could for teacher salaries. We will always do the
best for our teachers. We also move forward with our staff salaries, bus driver salaries. Sometimes it's really, really hard to focus on what's done right because the thing that's done wrong is so easy
to talk about. So, I apologize on behalf of myself, but I'm also very proud of where I stand now with this board and the district. And I want you to know that I have never ever sat up here knowing that we were not doing the best
for every single person in this educational community. That's it. Thank you. Um I just want to piggyback off of what Miss Clark said. Um, speaking to our delegation and CTE, uh,
I would say that, um, Senator Bradley and Sam Garrison, Representative Garrison, um, both combed that very well with ACE and CTE. Um, I I have to give both of them credit because they both had a big
influence in that as far as Klay County is concerned. Um, and I would like to say I would go as far as to say Klay County is who actually saved that funding. Um, because of our representation. Uh, so if you have the
time, sometimes we we as elected officials only hear the negatives. Um, and and like Miss Hansen said, a lot of people don't focus on the positives. So, if you have time, I would encourage all of you to just send them a thank you note or or an email of, hey, thank you
um for thinking about us because CTE is very impactful here in Klay County. Um I had the opportunity actually to visit my first school today um of the of the school year, Middle High School, and um I jokingly said it was bring your
husband to work day because I told him I had to stop by there. And he said, "Can I come?" And uh I said, "Yeah, because we both graduated from there and he wanted to see the changes um that put him where he is today." Um and so it was
really cool to to take him back several years. I won't mention, but um and to see the impact that our trades are having with our kids and our community. they graduate and they're making stellar stellar money, but they're doing what
they love and they have the certificates to do it and they're going into our communities, our backyard, um, starting businesses, working for their families or or our small businesses here in Klay County. Um, so I think understanding that that CTE and and vocational,
whatever you want to call it, trade is important to us. Um there are a lot of changes that the board is making um a lot and all at once. I understand that and we are going
to have a bumpy road with some of these changes. We've listened to all of you parents, all of you teachers. Um focus is coming back. That's one of the big pushes that um our teach that was actually one of the very first conversations I had with Mr. Broski was our teachers want focus back. like we
we've got to, you know, look at this. Um we obviously had more more things in front of us, but um that was something that we heard you about. We've heard you about the one-way communicate or the uh one-stop shop for communication. There are going to be hiccups. There are going
to be glitches. Um this is technology. It is programming. And there is going to be those same things when we switch from focus to synergy. So, like Miss Hansen said, I just I would I would beg for patience because you've asked for changes. We're trying to do our best in
doing that. Um, Miss Dennis, with uh the technology with our changes of API and our our website, um, we're trying to be more transparent. We heard your um your your voices on that. Um, just this week
alone, we we've tried to update that. um internal auditors uh this budget could be a bigger crisis than what some of you think it think it is and it it you know it's not ideal uh but I will tell you and I have to tell
you with the leadership with from principles to staff to our board uh this isn't what I mean I don't think any of us were like hey can you cut the budget like we need we need a curveball we need to figure some you like we need
entertainment. I no none of us would have wished this on on any of this. This is on any of us. This is not what we wanted. Um so I think that this has been very smooth considering I know it affects so many people. Um but I am
thankful we were able to keep jobs in this process. And as far as teacher pay without getting in trouble, I just want to say um that is a priority of this board and we have proven that time and time again. How that's paid out is
bargained and negotiated. So what we bring to the table um is decided essentially between two parties, right? But um if you don't agree on one side or the other, then then things can change. But I will tell
you the last three years have been historically paid out. Now are we where we want to be? No. But there was a lot of negligence. Well, I shouldn't call it negligence. Sorry. A lot of um many years of of where we don't want to
be, I guess I should say. Um so we're playing catch-up and you have to have money to play catchup. But I want our teachers to know that we hear you and we are doing everything we can do without essentially going bankrupt. Um because you have to do a little at a time. Uh
but again, we have been when we had it, we gave it. I want to be very clear on that uh without getting in trouble. Uh and then as far as fundraising, we are trying with these changes, we're trying to be creative and creativity takes
time. Um we are trying to find ways for you as individual schools to to fund raise. Um trying different ways uh to help all of you. Um so with that there are challenges but I've been talking
with our um attorney office uh I guess and we're working on some things and we've passed some policies to bring back boosters. So I want all of you to understand that it's even though we are in the predicament that we're in, we are
still trying. If we hit a wall, we try to find another route. Um so I don't want you to think that we're just throwing our hands up and and saying, "Okay, this is it." Um I also would like to say that I have a lot to say apparently tonight that um
some of us board members talk to our delegation as often as we can. Um, some of us are very involved and and trying to talk to people about education and public education. Um, they are they are hearing our concerns. Um, we'll see how
it pans out. But I want you to know that we don't just show up to two meetings a month. We are trying to actively help and trying to actively do our part to help teachers because one way or another we have family who either works in this
district, attends in this dis uh district or somehow is affected by all of this. So um I don't want you to feel it that it falls on deaf ears is what I'm saying. Um and I think that's it. Can I add something to that, Miss Skipper?
That was a mouthful. I was with uh Senator Bradley today and she said and I had to really think about my response. What's the most important thing to you? And we had a very candid kind of long conversation about master teacher pay.
So when Miss Skipper says if we ever get an opportunity, I'm thinking people just kind of shut their door to me now because they really don't want to hear me when I come in. But when we get an opportunity, we speak to the people that are actually able to make those changes and we speak with passion. And that's all I wanted to add to yours, Miss
Skipper. Yes. Yep. All right. And that is it. This meeting is adjourned. Board members, we have